Andaman Diary : Day 12-16 : Return from PortBlair

30/31/1/2/3rd Jan 2009
(Nancowry + Campbell Bay + Indira Point)


It was the day for departure from Port Blair to Chennai. For return we had booked B-Class cabin tickets for M.V.NANCOWRY ship.


It is huge as compared to M.V.HARSHAVARDHAN. It is very long, 157mts long. It’s a passenger cum Cargo ship, it has ample space for putting big containers in the front. It has 7 decks. 1&2 are for bink, 3rd for B-class cabins, 4th for 1st class cabins, 5th for deluxe cabins, 6th for ship officers & open spaces and 7th for the bridge. It has a helipad as well at the rear end.


It has 3 eating places, one for bunk passengers and 2 for cabin passengers. The ship can carry 1200 passengers + 113 crew members. In ship crews language it can carry 1200 souls. !!!


My cabin is good, it has enough walking space and a very effective air-conditioning. It has 6 bunk beds and 6 almirahs + 2 fans + a wash basin. No attached bathroom. The a/c was so effective that blankets were needed during the night. It looked like, its gonna be a sleeping competition this time, as much as one can sleep.


Open space.
Deluxe rooms are more like regular hotle rooms, 2 separate beds, 1 small TV, a fridge, attached bathroom, 2 almirahs + room service for bed tea :D On this ship as well, cabin class dining coupons can be purchased for 600 INR(3 days). Ship’s average speed is 13knots/hrs(24kms/hrs), it is supposed to reach Chennai on 3rd afternoon. A long time to reach Far Far Away land.


Tank shaped Lifeboats!!!

Campbell bay is the must visit place for next Andaman trip. The ship goes via Campbell bay, I was lucky to have seen it. It takes around 24hrs to reach from Port Blair. The place is amazing, the scene from the ship is breathtaking. I could see huge trees lining up the beach all along the island and few peaks as well. I guess the trees would be atleast 200-300 feets tall. The whole island is a National Park and this makes the place more inviting. Helicopter service is available as well. I could see very few houses and huts near the jetty and on the rest of the island. A National Park ought to be like this. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. I always wonder about the Forest Officers, who get this enjoyable stay across the wonderful forests. Even Havelock had a beach front Forest colony.


One more highlight for the return trip was the sighting of Indira Point. It is the southernmost point of India. It’s a small island with a lighthouse at the end of the island. It looks great.


Even from a far distance, the waves crashing at the beach are huge. There was lot of white color mist all along the coast. Being part of Nicobar islands, it is a restricted place, even for Indian nationals. It is under the control of Navy. Visiting any of the Nicobar islands requires special permissions, which is very difficult to get. A compelling reason is required, being a visitor is definitely not one of them, being a research student is one of them. The best I can do to visit Indira Point to see it from the onboard the ship.

Andaman Diary : Day 11 : Port Blair

29th Dec 2008

Not much time left to visit other islands, they are due for the next month long trip. Frankly speaking, after staying in a village for 7 days, i dont really like coming back to a city.


Abreden Bazar.


Cellular jail and the local market, Abreden bazaar should be enough. Unfortunately, the jail is closed on Mondays, but fortunately enough they do have “Light & Sound” shows on Monday evening. The jail is very near from the Abreden bazaar and the main bus stand. Auto guy charge around 20 bucks for that.


Cellular jail is a magnificent structure but with a very painful past.


Route Map.

The “Light and Sound” show, chronologically covers the construction and then the usage of the jail in last 100yrs.


Illegal picture(was taken where it was not allowed!!!)
A well worth show. There were around 350 seats, but here as well people create un-necessary queue-up for the tickets. There are 4 shows every evening in hindi/English at convenient timings.


Outside the Jail, there is a park with statues of the freedom fighters who were kept here.
Port Blair looks to be a nice, clean and little organized city. All the time a comforting breeze blows from the sea. Most of the auto-rickshaws I encountered charged nominal fares but few rascals are here as well. The Abreden bazaar closes by 9PM but eating places remain open till 10-11PM. This time I could not findgood eating places. May be next time.

Andaman Diary : Day 8-9-10 : Havelock Only

26/27/28th Dec 2008


I think beach #7(radhanagar beach) is the best beach in India. It is amazing. It’s a long and flat beach. The waves form only 10 m from the shoreline, beyond that it ia a gigantic swimming pool, no turbulence at all.


It seems still water for miles. Lot of people venture for long swims. Water is very tempting here.


The coastline is lined with thick jungle with giant trees. It is a beautiful sight. Accommodation is sparse at #7, and it is expensive as well.


There is tented accommodation with tents and domes provided by Department of Tourism. Otherwise there is barefoot, which is insanely expensive. Conveyance to #7 is not a problem. Plenty of options in the form of buses, jeeps and autos are available.




Sunset is spectacular.

This is the day for diving. I have opted just for a day’s dive. It consists of two dives. Without certification it costs 4K, and with, it costs 3K. I want to see the water here and the corals. I have heard a lot about them. Last time I did diving, it was in Redang. It was amazing. I saw a sea-horse as well there. Okay, coming back to Havelock diving, at the diving spots the water is crystal clear, visibility is nothing less than 12 feets. I had gone to Light house for diving. One in shallow and the second one in open water with back-roll. This was the first time I did back-roll, it is very exciting. Immense varieties of corals can be spotted here and loadst of colorful fishes. Next time I go diving, I will try to get my certification and to learn about different type of fishes.
Apart from Light house, other remarkable spots are the Wall, the Wreck and the Elephant beach. I am sure that there would be many more still unexplored.


Young Crab


Old Crab


Nothing much for today. Tickets to Port Blair can be purchased from the jetty. It has 2 window counters. One is for Port Blair and other one is for other islands like Rangat, etc. Rangat is a good place to go if heading for Diglipur. Tickets can be purchased 3 days in advance.

Many people I met here have been traveling around the world for year and may be year and half. If I have so much time I would definitely like to spend atleast a month in Havelock. I wish I could have so much money to travel around. By rough estimates, it would cost 20000 USD to travel around the world for a year, offcourse in cheap countries. For me to save that much, I would need atleast 10 years !!! I wounder how will I go?
May be not for a year, but couple of months should be definitely possible.


We went for hiking over a hill on beach #5, opposite Nandini and Pristine resort. It was very thick green forest. At times too thick, as there was no established way to go up, we had to make our own way. Before the hill, the level fields are occupied by coconut and banana plantations. I mean really big, plantations. It had rained last night and it was wet and slippery everywhere. The forest is a typical rainforest, full of tall trees so that no part of sunlight touches the ground. Ground was filled with broken leaves and rotting fallen trees. It was a good climb and I returned with lot of leaches on my leg. Beach is never far from any place in Havelock.


We returned to Port Blair by 2PM M.V.RAMANUJAM ferry. It took 5 hrs to reach phoenix jetty. It was a big ferry and can carry more than 400 passengers all in seating positions. I will narrate a fucking frustating incidents that happened. Everyone knows that the ferry leaves at 2PM, even then the jetty gates opened only at 1:15, inspite of the fact that the ferry was stationed at the jetty since 11AM. It definitely takes more than an hour to fill in, all the passengers. Still they opened it only at 1:15. Then, imagine 400 people waiting outside the jetty for gates to be opened. And even when the gates are opened, tickets are checked at 3 places, each time a huge queue will build up within minutes. Wtf is this, is this some way to generate employment. By 2:30PM, people were still trying to settle in.


While disembarking, again it was a mayhem. Only one way to get out and that through a narrow stair, from which only 2 persons in parallel can move. Does ferry crew considers the passengers to be animals who move like a fucking heard and then get out of a narrow gate? Cant they make 2 exits for such a big ferry? So that, atleast passengers can get down safely. Elders, ladies and kids, all had to suffer this artificial crisis, only because the fucking ship crew considers them to be too busy standing and watching all this shit happening. They are to server passengers, not to make their travel miserable.
I believe this is the story only with M.V.RAMANUJAM, while traveling by M.V.PILOWMILLOW there was no such problem.

Andaman Diary : Day5-6-7 : Havelock Only

23/24/25 Dec 2008


Glimpse of Kalapathar beach.

Havelock is a small island with a population of just 12000. Whole island can be easily criss-crossed by a bicycle. #7 is a little far, nearly 10 kms from the main market. There are 2 more prominent beaches, one is Kala-pathar and other one is Elephant beach. Most of the resorts don’t have license to serve liquor, so it is seriously advisable to buy your own liquor from the jetty as and when you disembark at the jetty and then carry it to your place. There is a lone wine shop which is at the jetty. It is wonderful way to check ones intake !!!


Nandini Restaurant (He was concerned that the tourists wont come because of the Bombay blasts, this restaurant is their livelihood)
Most of the resorts have in-house restaurants. Unfortunately they are not good. They are okay but food is much better at standalone restaurants.


Nandini and Full-Moon are the recommended places at #5. In the main market there was a good eating place, but 2-days back , in a major arson it was gutted along with 18 other shops. Huge losses for the shop owners. Market has a good vegetable and fish market. At both the places, supplies look fresh. There is a book shop as well which sells second hand books at reasonable prices, always bargain. One, caution, Vodafone network, doesn’t exists here, rest others are available in full strength. I have airtel, so no problems. There is not ATM in Havelock, so one should carry enough cash as well, and if interested in diving then carry lot of surplus!!!


Beach just outside the resort.

Diving is tad expensive as compared to Thailand and Malaysia. PADI certification costs around 16K without acco, which is only 12K in Thailand and with acco. But still, being in India, it is the best place. The water has a amazing clarity and it is cheap to reach here.


Houses of local people.

Life is slow here, the local population is super friendly. Natives are very few, most of the population is migrant from mainland(Andhra, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Bengal) , Burma and Bangladesh.
After coming here, I realized that how popular this place is among westerners, very few Indian tourists come here as compared to them. My resort itself is a global village, apart from me, there are people from England, Sweden, Canada, France, Switzerland and Holland. That’s all I have met with so far. This is a place which demands a week, not a day or two.


One got to spend some nights at the beach, some wonderful mornings, excellent evening markets and diving offcourse, its all very nice. This place is damn cheap as well. The amount I would have spent daily in a city, in the same sum, I can spend 2-3 days here. The market is opening up after the big arson.

To get around the islands, bicycles and motorbikes can be rented at not so nominal charge. Bike rent is 250 bucks which is even expensive than the Goa bike rentals. Similarly bicycles can be rented at 50 bunks a piece with a nominal deposit. They are available in plenty, in worst case it may take a day to arrange. We rented bicycles for a day to get around the island.


Kalapathar beach in its full glory

Kalapathar is a popular beach around 5 kms from the main market.


Access road to Kalapathar beach.

The access road runs along the coast with thick jungle on the right. It was really nice, I was feeling as the jungle is inviting me, come and explore me. Hiking is no problem in Havelock, only downside is that camping is strictly prohibited. Apparently local administration gave a sound reasoning. If allowed, many foreign campers, generally go deep into the jungles and then it becomes really difficult to keep a tab on their number of days of stay. Foreigners are only allowed for a maximum of 45 days in amdamans. But still one can erect a camp within the boundary of a resort, but that would be insult to camping. That’s why may be till now I haven’t seen anyone camping anywhere.


Some more of Kalapathar.


The whole beach is lined with remnants of Tsunami. Lot of uprooted trees can be seen, but still the beach was amazing. Havelock was not affected much by the Tsunami. Further down the beach, there was a enclosure which houses elephants. People come here to watch them work.


Fortunately enough, being 25th Dec, it’s a holiday for them as well. Today they would have had a field day in the jungle.

Andaman Diary : Day 4 : PortBlair arrival and Havelock departure

22nd Dec 2008


What a beautiful morning, the islands were in sight and the ship was floating a little away from the Port.


Passengers starting to assemble on the deck.


Kids getting ready.

Even after 3 days of travel, we are not feeling tired and raring to go to Havelock. The ship was docked at the ADO jetty by 7:30 and we were at phoenix jetty by 8. By auto rickshaw it takes 50 INR to reach there.


One of the light houses near the ADO jetty.

Phoenix jetty has main ticket counter for all the inter-island travel and for travel to the mainland as well. Our purpose was to get the return tickets to Chennai and today’s tickets for Havelock. For Havelock, both normal and speed boats play. Except M.V.RAMANUJAM, all others are speed boat. By speed boat it takes around 2 and half hrs and by normal boat, it takes 4 hrs.


Advance Ticket Reservation Centre (Truly advanced!!!)

Phoenix jetty has a good advance ticket reservation counter, but it doesn’t seem to work even in a normal way. The centre opens at 9AM, but the person who sells the tickets from the counter came not before 10AM. It’s a glass enclosed building, with non-functional air-conditioning. It was hot and humid like hell in there. What is the use of creating such a good infrastructure when it is no good for the passengers?

Ticket PIC Pending

One good thing is that advance tickets can be purchased for all the dates for which the scheduled has been released. Generally for next one month. From mainland it is just not possible to book tickets in advance, from Chennai, Kolkata or Vizag, they open the ticket booking only 3 days prior to the departure and they need a photograph as well, but in Port Blair, no such crazy protocols.
Finally by standing in the queue for 4 hrs we could get the tickets for B-class Cabin tickets for Chennai but still couldn’t get the tickets for Havelock.


M.V.PILOWMILLOW

Fortunately we could get the tickets by turning up at the last moment, not seating but standing tickets for 2pm M.V.PILOMILLOW ferry. By standing it means, we could stand anywhere on the lower deck as well as the upper deck, and in the end it turned out to be better than the seating tickets.


Plilowmillow upper deck.

Atleast, one can watch the scenery and feel the wind. By 4:30, we were docked at the Havelock jetty.


Small and Sleepy island but very beautiful.

It is considered to be the best island in Andamans to spend most of the time. It has seven beaches which go by the numbers as beach #1, beach #2 and so forth. Each beach has a village associated with it as village #1 and so forth. The best among all these is the beach #7, Radhanagar beach. On #7 accommodation is limited and expensive, best place is the #5 to stay. It is lined up with many beach side resorts, which generally offer hut accommodation at cheap prices. During this time of the year most of the resorts are full, but we could manage to get 400 INR double bed room with a clean bathroom in Gold India resort.


Our accommodation for a week.

What else one needs, a good bed and a clean bathroom? But here, a mosquito net as well :)

Andaman Diary : Day2-3 : Ship Journey

20/21st Dec 2008


The evening of the previous day.

Sleeping on the ship is not bad, it becomes bad only when the waves are punishing. The rear end of the ship vibrates a lot, I can feel a constant buzz, but after some time I have got used to it.


Crack of the dawn.


Morning are outstanding, not at all to miss such an opportunity, I woke up by 5:30 AM and was ready for the spectacle. Unfortunately from the sea, most of the horizon is occupied by the far far away clouds and the mist. The sun was visible only after half an hour of the actual sunrise, nevertheless it was still breathtaking.


Insanely expensive Bunk Canteen.

The breakfast in Cabin class dining is pretty impressive. Upama + Bread + Jam + Butter + Omlette + Cornflakes + Boiled potatoes. A very healthy and a little too heavy !!! Ship travel is very relaxed, I didn’t do any physical work on the ship, just lying around here and there :) Anyways, the breakfast in bunk Canteen is 4 cold bread slices + butter and it costs 30 bucks. That’s ridiculous. The 2-day meal pass for cabin class dining costs around 350 INR per person. Very much worth it, the food is good and in plenty, and a good ambience to eat as well.



While talking to the ship crew, I came to know that for the shipping corporation, these trips are very loss making. The maintenance is huge as compared to the fares. Tickets prices are very low and for islanders it is less than 50% of the fare what tourists had to pay. Islanders had to pay only 700 INR for Bunk tickets, for the same ticket I had to pay 2000 INR. These ships run on the government subsidy. After all as a government enterprise, primary purpose of The Shipping Corporation is to provide good and cheap services to its citizens. No issues :)


Life-boats.

This vessel M.V.HARSHAVARDHAN is 32 years old and after 2 years, it would be scrapped, most probably would end up in Gujarat-scrapyard port. The other ships which operate from Chennai are M.V.NANCOWRY and M.V.SWARAJDEEP. They are pretty new as compared to this one, only 16years old.


Smoke spewing chimney.

While talking to Cadet Naveen, a friendly chap, I came to know about few of the ship’s details. The bridge is the main control room of the ship, it has radars, compasses and other gadgetry. Our guide was The maximum speed of this ship is 18knots/hr(nautical miles/hr). 1nautical mile = 1.85kms. Our course is set to 126 degrees from Visakhapatnam to Port Blair.



We are expected to reach there by 21st midnight, but Port Blair has only 2 pilot boats and they don’t operate during the night. So, the ship will unnecessarily wait outside the Port till morning but Dolphins can be seen near Port Blair :)


Some more sunset shots.

Island passengers are crazy about playing cards, most of the time I could see them playing. Crazy lot !!!